Best set of the year: 1995

 

Who am I kidding here? I can't evaluate the card year in 1995!

There were 33 major releases in 1995. There were two sets with rounded corners! Two! Apparently card companies didn't hear that the World Series was canceled the year prior.

But I did. I bought three packs of Topps in 1995. And then I exited, closed the door and didn't return to the hobby for a decade.

My enthusiasm for this year in card collecting is very low. But it's not as low as for 1996 (foreshadowing). I'm incapable of an exhaustive breakdown of most of the sets from '95. I refuse to cover all 33. There were some suggestions to break it down in various ways, maybe cover the basic sets, and then a separate post for the premium sets and super premium ones.

Yuck. I don't even like referring to sets as "premium" and "super premium."

So this is the problem. I want to evaluate a year by old-collecting means that doesn't fit into those standards. In 1994, I tried to take six sets that I considered the "most collectible," whatever that means.

This time I'm not making it so difficult for myself. Instead, I'm going to review only the seven sets in 1995 that had the guts to put at least 500 cards (or close to it) in their set. You know, as a set should be.

But I'll throw a bone to those other sets by a brief listing of some of my favorites not among those seven.

 

OK, let's go:

 

1995 Collector's Choice -- the front

Plusses: In what was already a Collector's Choice tradition, a well-presented, well-framed photo. ... I enjoy the font and the team-colored last name. ... This is my favorite Collector's Choice look.

Minuses: Really don't have any.

1995 Collector's Choice -- the back

Plusses: Similar pattern to '94, a terrific, large photo on the back and usually with an interesting image. ... Some nice team-color coding on the back. ... '95 CC went with full career stats on the back, rather than five years max, which is BIG for an Upper Deck product. Must've been a Come To Jesus meeting there somewhere.

Minuses: The athletes with lots of experience by '95 are shorted the large photo because their stats take up a bunch of space. This is a sacrifice veteran collectors of Topps products had known as early as the 1960s (it just meant no cartoon), but it goes against what UD's philosophy had been to this point.

 

1995 Collector's Choice -- overall

 

Plusses: Still a relatively significant set alternative to the Upper Deck foil-fest, although CC decreased from 670 cards to 530. ... Terrific images all over the set and with a nice clean white border instead of those infernal '94 pinstripes. ... If you like this kind of thing, the silver- and gold-signature parallels return. ... Released as a single set instead of the two-release schedule from '94. I am a fan of releasing the whole set at once, probably because of when I started collecting. ... Lots and lots of subsets! ... The "You Crash The Game" redemption cards, in which you could upgrade to a different version of the card, debuted. So if you needed additional bells-and-whistles with your card set, there was that.

Minuses: I don't need additional bells-and-whistles. ... Collector's Choice went with a different look for players who were award winners or all-stars, scrapping the borders for those cards. Although I appreciate the different look for All-Stars (hello, 1975 Topps!), this was very confusing to me returning to the hobby. "Are these different cards? A different set?"

 

 

1995 Donruss -- the front

Plusses: One of the best-looking Donruss sets ever, really. Very sophisticated for Donruss ... Probably helps that the set is modeled after the all-time greats, '63 and '83 Topps. ... I enjoy how the mug shot breaks out of the home plate frame. Heck, I enjoy the home plate frame! ... Nice images zoomed in on the player.

Minuses: Oh, there's foil, so the player name and team name can be impossible to read (that's Phil Plantier up there). ... It's a bit generic, although the inset photo saves it.

1995 Donruss - the back

Plusses: Nice layout. There are a lot of elements that could clash or become unreadable but Donruss gets the second, large player image in there, with the big team logo, with the stats, with the vitals and nothing gets lost. ... This is the way to present yearly stats that are super-imposed over an image.

 

Minuses: I guess if you're a stickler for complete career stats (which would kill this layout), Donruss is giving you the Upper Deck treatment with this set and no more than five years.

 

1995 Donruss -- overall

 

Plusses: You guys, a '90s Donruss set I actually like. Figures it came out after I stopped collecting. ... A couple neat-looking insert sets such as Long Ball Leaders and Bomb Squad. ... The Diamond Kings insert set is spectacularly bright, loud and bizarre. 

Minuses: Why'd you have to come out in '95, why couldn't you have come out in '92?

 

1995 Fleer -- the front

Plusses: "Say something nice, say something nice." ... Well, it certainly is unique, and looks like nothing else.

Minuses: The most disorienting card fronts ever. There are six different designs within one set, separated by the six MLB divisions. What? WHY? Why do you hate collectors? ... Some of the card fronts are unreadable and actually nauseating.

1995 Fleer -- the back

Plusses: Thank goodness Fleer did not do the six-different-looks thing for the backs. The layout is the same no matter which division.

Minuses: Still not the most readable, quite a bit going on.

1995 Fleer -- overall

Plusses: A conversation-starter to this day. This set will be talked about for the rest of time and I guess if you subscribe to the "just spell my name right" philosophy then somebody at Fleer back then is happy we're still talking. ... I do not confuse it with any other set. ... There are a lot of inserts with this set that DO NOT LOOK LIKE THE BASE SET YAY!

Minuses: It's called the Acid Trip Set for a reason. I don't have experience in this area, but I think in the long run an acid trip is a bad thing. ... It just leaves so many questions in your head that there are no answers for. ... It makes me want to track down the brains behind this set and require them to sit down for a two-hour interview and explain themselves.

1995 Score -- the front

Plusses: Score really stepped up its game for the second straight year in terms of supplying interesting photos instead of its previous habit of non-stop pictures of hitters hitting and pitchers pitching. ... The ripped page look was all the rage in the mid-1990s, I like it. ... I also like the team logo presentation. ... The 3-D overlap look is always cool.

Minuses: The green tire-tread design on every card is a bit puzzling, but the mid-'90s was a time for puzzling, I guess ... A come-down from the blue border look of 1994.

 

 

Plusses:  Everything is in its place.

Minuses: Score scrapped the team logo on the back for the first time. Not good. ... We have to read script for the second straight year. I don't want to do that. ... The photo is a bit squished, which happened in '94, too.

 

1995 Score -- overall

 

Plusses: At 605 cards, Score was the third-largest set issued in 1995 and the first-largest that wasn't a Topps name. ... It's an interesting set to look at even if the design isn't great.

 

Minuses: I'm sure the Gold Rush parallels were cool at the time, but they don't hold up that great, prone to paper loss and sticking and just not the best look. ... The Hall of Gold inserts I find weird, not crazy about Score's inserts here really. ... Score (and some other brands, too) was really into "sample" cards at this time. I've never understood the appeal of these, especially if they weren't really samples. ... Started to feel like Score's time was passing at this point (it'd really be apparent in the next couple of years). I'm always happy to see a Score set, but it didn't exactly fit into the late '90s landscape.

1995 Stadium Club -- the front

Plusses: Stadium Club is sticking with what works: a full-bleed set with interesting photos and lots of cards. ... The center-positioned "design" with the team logo is a decent approach, although I'm not a fan of it being in the center of the photo with the horizontal shots ... The dated photo-processing look of Stadium Club's cards through the first part of the '90s seemed to disappear around this time for whatever reason.

Minuses: I commonly lament that the lack of design in SC causes me to confuse the sets. I've gotten a bit better at this over the years but we're entering prime territory for my continued SC confusion. I'm trying to recall the '96 look and drawing an absolute blank.

1995 Stadium Club -- the back

Plusses: This back says that Keith Olbermann is wearing a leather jacket on the air somewhere. ... I won't argue with pretty colors on the back.

Minuses: This is worse than the '94 backs because weirdly all the facts and figures are sideways but the player and the card number are right-side-up. ... I don't understand why graphic designers in the mid-1990s hated readers.

1995 Stadium Club -- overall

 

Plusses: It's still a large set but backed away from the exorbitant 700-card set to a mere 630. ... It's one of the most collectible sets from this year, it's not boring or distracting, which a lot of 1995 sets could not say. ... There are bunch of inserts and some are pretty good. Stuff like "Power Zone" continues to this day and a lot of collectors really liked the Ring Leaders inserts (too gaudy for me). ... Thanks to being released in three series over the year, Stadium Club could include a Hideo Nomo rookie in its flagship set.

Minuses: Some of the inserts are pointless, which is a problem with the Stadium Club reboot, too. ... First-day issues and such were all the rage and I still don't get the appeal. ... Another set that will stick like hell if you buy a box of it now.

 

 

1995 Topps -- the front

 

Plusses: There's that torn-page look again, I don't think I realized how much it was used in the mid-1990s until now. This is probably the most obvious card example. ... Topps had been embracing the unusual photos since 1991 but it really went wild in 1995 with some triple-exposure stuff and other weirdness. ... Foil aside, it's a fairly reserved design, kind of classy.

 

Minuses: About that foil, the player names are really difficult to read in certain lighting or if the card is tilted the wrong way. I used to dismiss this as typical collector carping, but it's really started to bother me enough that where once I wanted to complete the whole set, now I don't care. ... This isn't the fault of Topps, but there are some awful mid-1990s uniforms on display in this set.

 

 

1995 Topps -- the back

Plusses: The primary element of the back is the "Diamond Vision" scoreboard treatment of the head shot. It is memorable even if it's a bit unusual as I associate "Diamond Vision" with the late '70s/early '80s.

Minuses: That head shot sure takes up a lot of space! ... Italic writing must've been a thing at this time. ... The rare bottom-corner display of the card number makes for a bit of searching.

1995 Topps -- overall

Plusses: After a couple of so-so flagship outings (according to me anyway), Topps took a step up with the '95 look. That wouldn't last though, we're about to enter the doldrums. ... This is a 660-card set, like the good ol' days! It's also the largest set issued in 1995 and right after the strike, too. ... The Cyberstats parallels -- sometimes praised, sometimes panned -- is one of the few signs that card companies recognized the strike in its '95 sets. It's a pretty good idea for those who like to play the what-if game, with the parallels showing extrapolated stats for the full season that didn't exist in 1994. I like 'em.

Minuses: Maybe the foil names on the border edge wasn't a good idea. ... Topps' insert game was relatively weak compared with other companies. This doesn't matter much to me, but in the '90s it was a reason to skip your packs on the shelf. ... We're starting to get into pre-production confusion here, which leads to the constant "which set is dis?" problem that is all over sets from this time.

1995 Upper Deck -- the front

Plusses: One of the cleanest, classiest, most-pleasing looks Upper Deck ever put out. ... A terrific comeback from whatever that thing was in 1994. ... Wonderful photos in this set, with the full-bleed treatment -- Upper Deck was really going after Stadium Club's lunch here. ... I like the bronze lettering in this set, makes every card special.

Minuses: If you don't like minimalist looks than this set is a significant problem. ... This happens a lot, but the greatness of the horizontal cards makes me wish there were no vertical cards.

1995 Upper Deck -- the back

Plusses: Upper Deck was more committed to the photo on the back than ever before. It's really like a second front. ... Team logo on the back! Team logo on the back!

Minuses: The sideways writing mixed with the vertical writing is not helpful.

1995 Upper Deck -- overall

Plusses: The look of this set made it a collector favorite from the beginning. ... A whole bunch of inserts, if you care, including autograph redemptions, which I think is one of the first times autographs were recognized in a major set. ... You can find Hideo's rookie here, too.

Minuses: More pointless parallels with the Electric Diamond thing happening. ... The set is only 450 cards (495 if you include the Update cards). I dismissed other sets with around this number but made an exception for UD because it was so established and looks great.

OK, before I get to what the "best set" is, here are some of my favorites from '95 that didn't get a break down due to set size and also due to the fact that I can't be writing blog posts for 24 hours straight:

If you're not familiar with 1995 cards, those sets in order are Flair, Leaf, Pacific Prisms and Upper Deck SP. Flair is super classy, Leaf is just awesome with the huge foil team names that glisten (and you can't miss 'em). Prisms are wild but one of the few Pacific sets where I understand the hype. And I think this is the best-looking SP set ever made.

I know I skipped a couple of prominent sets here. Pacific and Ultra both had 450-card sets, but you have to make decisions when people don't know when to quit making card sets.

 

I also skipped notables like Pinnacle (the start of the gold-design-infringing-on-the-photo phenomenon), Bowman (not great), Studio (the credit-card set!), Zenith (gold bricks?) and like half a dozen lenticular sets issued this year.

Sorry not sorry.

OK, now for the winner. Probably some controversy here.

But the best set of 1995 is ...

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UPPER DECK!!!!!

Man, '96 is going to be a killer.

Total "Best Set of the Year" ranking: Topps - 6, Upper Deck - 4, Stadium Club -3, Collector's Choice - 1, Donruss - 1, Fleer - 1